I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; you gotta try harder as you get older.

This motto occurred to me after I first got engaged. I was in the bathroom at work one day putting on makeup when I told one of my coworkers – let’s call her Jane. I liked Jane, she was nice and smiled more often than other dour-faced people I encountered on a daily basis. After I told her I just got engaged, she pointed at my makeup stash and said, “Why bother putting on all that stuff? You don’t have to try anymore because you already got a man.”

Whoa, now that I was out of the dating game, it was time to ditch the smoky eye look and pursue a life lycra-infused leisure wear? What she said freaked me out. I know, I know — I don’t have to equate getting hitched with totally giving up on trying to look put-together, but as I get older truth be told I find myself getting lazy. I keep reminding myself to not give up on keeping up the beauty routine because my godmother, who has plenty o’ children and grandchildren to spare, is pushing 70, and she still gets her hair done, puts on makeup and coordinates her accessories with her outfits. And she looks *good*! She is one of my style heroes and I hope to be as rocking as she is when I’m her age.

While my godmother is the antithesis of lazy style, we all know that you can’t always go out wearing a full face of makeup. There’s laundry to wash, drafts to edit and sleep to be had. But when you leave the house to run that quick errand or hit the gym you want to make the effort to still look good, right? So in the spirit of “trying harder,” I’ve developed a minimal makeup/lazy day makeup/workout makeup routine.

(And yes, I can admit that I have to put on a little makeup before I work out. If that makes me vain, I don’t care. At least I don’t have to stare at my under eye circles when I’m lifting weights or dancing, ugh.)

My routine takes five minutes, less if I decide to skip a step or two at the end. I’ve done this routine in the car, out in the middle of the forest (yes, I wear makeup when I attempt to camp) and at the beach. It’s the bare minimum I need to look put together. Try it on your lazy days, or if you’ve just got to run out to the grocery store and don’t want to go full-on foundation, powder, etc.

Step 1: First I apply concealer (I’m currently using Make Up Forever’s Lift Concealer) underneath and in the inner corner of my eyes with MAC’s 252 Large Shader Brush to cover up any dark circles. If I’m in a hurry skip the brush and just use my fingers. I just make sure to wash my hands first or use Purell.

Step 2: I then curl my lashes with MAC’s eyelash curler to open up my eyes. I skip the mascara because it’s something that I just can’t do in a hurry. Plus, I don’t want to have to take the time to clean up any mistakes.

Step 3: Next I apply color to my eyebrows to fill them out and give them definition. In the cheat sheet above, I put a picture of MAC’s Brow Shader, but I use MAC Eyeshadow in the color Concrete (a dark brown) with the 266 Brush. I don’t like to fill in my brows with anything darker than brown; otherwise, I think it looks to harsh.

Step 4: I then apply cream blush to the apples of my cheeks and blend upwards into the hairline with my fingers. I use Paula Dorf’s Cheek Cream in Cha Cha, a very pretty hot pink that at first looks a little scary in the pan. Once I put it on the color tones down gives the perfect pink flush.

Step 5: Last I blot my forehead, nose and any other oily areas with a piece of Shiseido Blotting Papers.

Voila, I’m done! If I have a little extra time I’ll throw some gloss on, and if I’m feeling ambitious, I might replace the Blotting Papers for powder. It all depends on how late I am, ha ha ha!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE MAC brushes. I can’t get enough of them, and I always find a reason to justify getting just one more brush. And just ’cause I can, here’s the list of all of the MAC brushes I’m jonesing for!

This weekend I finally picked up some MAC concealer, Select Moisturecover in NW 25.

Select Moisturecover is the latest addition to my concealer arsenal. I’m a concealer junkie, and currently I’m rotating Make Up Forever’s Lift Concealer in Dark Beige 2 with Biotherm’s Forget It Concealer in 30.

I decided to try using a pink-toned concealer because at the MAC seminar I attended a few weeks ago, the instructor told us that most people (even those with yellow undertones) should wear a pink-based concealer underneath their eyes. Also, in this month’s Allure there’s a brief feature on Bobbi Brown, and she suggests wearing a pink-based concealer underneath a yellow-based concealer.

I really like the color of Select Moisturecover concealer on my skin. I was afraid that the pink tones would make it look obvious, but the pink tones really seem to cancel out the dark circles. It has a good consistency — not too thick, not too thin — and I like the doe foot applicator. Plus, when I blend it in with the 252 Large Shader Brush it looks great!

However, the looking great part doesn’t seem to last long. Unlike Biotherm or Make Up Forever’s concealers, which don’t budge and can last throughout a sweaty dance class, within a few hours I Select Moisturecover starts to slip off my face. Ugh! My concealer quest continues.

The fact that I can make it work when I layer one of my other concealers over it saves this concealer from a lower rating. I plan on keeping it because I like the color so much.

If your skin isn’t as oily as mine you might really like this concealer. And if you’ve got dark circles then you might want to try a pink-toned concealer, I think it really works wonders.

Remember that song from the 90s by En Vogue, “Never Gonna Get It”? That’s how I feel about my current Barbie Loves MAC T-Shirt situation. I was really hoping to snag one of these cute tees because they’re so cute, so pink and so my style! So when I went to the site a month ago and saw that they still had them available online I jumped on it and purchased one. A few hours later I got an e-mail from MAC saying that the shirts were on backorder, and that they’d ship me one once they had enough stock. (And ironically, the e-mail was signed by a service rep named Barbie, ha ha ha.)

This past Friday (and one month later) I got another e-mail from MAC saying they still can’t ship the shirt, and if after 30 days they can’t fulfill the order, they’ll have to cancel the order unless I write them and tell them to keep the item beyond 30 days. ARGH! I’m never gonna get this shirt!